“The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of IngSoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible… Its vocabulary was so constructed as to give exact and often very subtle expression to every meaning that a Party member could properly wish to express, while excluding all other meaning and also the possibility of arriving at them by indirect methods. This was done partly by the invention of new words…”–George Orwell. Nineteen Eighty-Four. Appendix: “The Principles of Newspeak“.
In other news, “OMG” is now in the dictionary.
I don’t oppose abbreviations like “OMG” or “IMHO” as such; brevity is, in some media, most valuable. But is it really necessary to put it in the dictionary? They are just abbreviations for ordinary words, and convey no new meaning themselves.
But perhaps I’m simply a reactionary. What say you? Am I too punctilious about these things?
P.S. I realize it’s something of a cliche to quote Orwell on matters like this. But it’s a cliche because it fits.
